The collection / 3,980 fragments
Traditional sayings from a documented English collection, with reviewed meanings for an expanding editorial selection.
Meaning: Someone unwilling to consider a message can be harder to reach than someone who simply missed it. Notice whether the obstacle is missing information or a refusal to engage with it.
Meaning: The expression dismisses a story as unlikely to persuade someone who examines it closely. Its hearing-related image is a harsh rhetorical device, not a reason to demean people with hearing differences.
Meaning: Making a shortage into one’s storehouse pictures gaining from other people’s deprivation. The saying condemns exploiting scarcity, rather than every instance of preparing supplies or receiving a benefit during difficult circumstances; the relevant question is how the advantage is obtained.
Meaning: The timing of death cannot be treated as an appointment people can count on controlling. The calendar image expresses uncertainty about life’s duration, encouraging awareness of limits without making a prediction about any individual or demanding constant urgency.
Meaning: Death is imagined as unable to hear objections, so a protest cannot make it negotiate. The saying expresses mortality’s finality rather than a judgment about how someone should feel about loss.
Meaning: Death is named as a certainty against which other expectations seem less secure. The saying invites perspective on finite life, but it gives no information about anyone’s timing or circumstances and should not dismiss fear, grief or the value of present care.
Meaning: Owing money can make hardship feel especially restrictive because future resources are already committed. The saying emphasises the burden of obligation.
Meaning: Settling an obligation can remove one source of worry or exposure. The repeated “out of” makes release from debt sound like release from danger.
Meaning: The richest result may require going beyond an easy surface approach. Deep water becomes an image of work or understanding that takes more effort to reach, without guaranteeing a better outcome.
Meaning: Actions provide the useful result that words may only promise. Look for what has actually been done rather than judging commitment solely by an impressive statement of intention.
Meaning: The value of a life can be considered through its actions rather than its length alone. The saying honours worthwhile conduct, without reducing someone’s worth to productivity or supplying one universal measure of a good life.
Meaning: Postponing a needed action can allow a problem to grow or an opportunity to close. Consider the consequences of waiting rather than assuming that delay preserves every option.
Meaning: Build the necessary ability before attempting a situation you cannot yet manage. Enthusiasm does not replace preparation when the consequences of being out of your depth would be serious.
Meaning: Doing something deserving does not guarantee a corresponding reward. The saying questions whether recognition follows merit, without making good work pointless or proving that every recognised person is undeserving.
Meaning: The saying encourages developing the qualities needed for an aspiration rather than relying on wanting it. It should not imply that basic care, dignity or fair opportunities must be earned through achievement.
Meaning: Waiting for something can make the desire for it more intense. Notice how anticipation affects your judgement rather than assuming that a growing wish proves the thing is becoming more worthwhile.
Meaning: What one person rejects may be exactly what another wants. The saying highlights differences in preference and circumstances, without proving that every unwanted thing is useful or every desire is well considered.
Meaning: The saying places execution and marriage under destiny. It joins a severe event and a relationship decision through the belief that both are predetermined.
Meaning: The phrase marks the coincidence of someone arriving just as they are being discussed. Its devil image is a playful figure of speech in this use, not evidence of supernatural causation or a judgement that the arriving person is wicked.
Meaning: Once someone has accepted a difficult companion or arrangement, they must decide how to handle the consequences. The devil aboard a ship exaggerates the trouble introduced by an earlier choice.
Meaning: Acknowledge a person’s genuine merit even when you dislike or oppose them. Fair assessment does not require approving everything they have done or overlooking a serious wrong.
Meaning: Do not exaggerate a fault or make an already troubling situation seem worse than the evidence shows. The devil supplies an extreme image, but the practical point is proportionate judgement rather than denying real wrongdoing.
Meaning: Strong pressure can make a person feel they have little choice about moving forward. The devil driving supplies a forceful image of compulsion, while leaving room to examine the choices that remain.
Meaning: Practical circumstances may require limited accommodation with something a person dislikes. Holding a candle to the devil represents reluctant assistance, but the saying does not make every compromise acceptable.